Grace Abounds
Paul said that the more sin abounds, the more God's grace abounds. My experiences here on the east side of Dayton have confirmed that principle many times over. Sin and evil abound here - that's true. But in the midst of the darkness, Jesus' light shines all the brighter.
For instance, on a recent Sunday afternoon I set out with my four year old daughter Junia for Washington Park. As she peddled her tricycle (which a formerly incarcerated brother from our church had just given to her), I had to steer her around broken Jack Daniels bottles, two used hypodermic needles, and past multiple abandoned houses which street addicts use as make-shift shelters.
I don't typically bring Junie to this park, despite how close it is, because this is the sort of stuff we have to ride by. I'm out and about in the neighborhood regularly and am used to these conditions, but that afternoon I saw it all and felt it all anew. Maneuvering my daughter around that second needle, my heart cried out to God. I prayed for her safety. I prayed for the kids I'd seen earlier out on a nearby porch. I prayed for the folks who have no home on earth better than houses such as the one you see. I prayed against the darkness.
When we arrived, a drug deal was being finished up under the pavilion on that side of the park and I began to wonder whether or not I ought to just take Junia home... but then I caught sight of a glimmer in that darkness. I saw a Turkish mother and her children. This Muslim mama was keeping a close eye on her kids while they had a raucously joyful time playing in the meager water-works which the city set up in our park a couple years back. The sound of their happy shouting was all the more beautiful in that setting.
I also saw, coming down the big hill on the opposite side of the park, the friends I had brought Junia here to see. A new family has been connecting with our church recently - two missionary parents and their four wonderful kids, who returned in 2020 from a long term of service in China. This couple is now heavily involved in refugee ministry. They had been hosting a soccer game on Sundays for refugee families at various parks around Dayton and decided to bring this event to our neck of the woods. I am so glad they did! That day, in Washington Park, right next to burned out houses, drug deals, discarded needles, and broken glass, a crowd of people, including lots of children, gathered to play.
A pair of Spanish speaking twins, an Arab-speaking teenager, my little fair-haired daughter, an African American boy from down the block, and the grandson of a homeless friend who had heard about this event during our Sunday service, along with many others fanned out for a beautifully chaotic game of soccer. Junie shrieked with joy as she chased a frisbee a friend got out for her, little ones raced each other around and over the playground equipment, and multiple different languages melted into the shared sound of laughter as our soccer ball went careening from one side of the field to the other.
I'm so glad I didn't turn back from fear and take Junia home. She and I would have missed out on all that light - shining so brightly in the midst of the darkness. Grace abounded that evening, as it continues to abound and overflow in multiple ways here among the people on Dayton's east side.
More Lights Lit
It really has been a lovely couple months of ministry here. We finally installed Chi and Dami as our Community Development Director and our Spiritual Formation Coordinator respectively.
They've been here only for a handful of weeks, but they've thrown themselves into the work. Chi will be designing a rigorous form of research into our neighborhood's problems with persistent poverty, housing insecurity, and homelessness, but she has already begun seeking out and informally interviewing the homeless people we count as friends. For instance, she and a key volunteer in our church named Charlotte went to meet a homeless friend named Belinda one fine day in late August.
They ate McDonalds together and Belinda gave them a tour of her living conditions. Chi asked Belinda what she thought the church might be able to do to help people like her. Belinda replied that, after food (which was her first request) what she wanted was someone to spend time with her. To talk to her. "To treat me like a human being." That day two friends took the time to do just that.
Chi cried as she relayed the story to our leadership team later that week. She said that Belinda and others she had interviewed live less well than many dogs she has known. She said that they live in circumstances that strip them of their dignity - keeping them dirty and hungry and desperate. She articulated a passionate desire to assist Belinda and those like her in living with the dignity that is theirs by right as people made in the image of God.
Though she recounted her day out with Charlotte and Belinda through tears, and though Belinda and too many others like her are living in desperate and undignified conditions, I think you will agree with me that the light of God's love is visible in the selfie those three daughters of God took that day.
We've been up to so much here lately! We gave more than 140 neighborhood kids the school supplies they needed for the year. We had our first Friday distributing more than 500 meals to our needy neighbors. We baptized our brother James after months of preparation and serious attempts by the Enemy to stop him. (Including a robbery the week before his baptism during which one of the gunmen, caught on James' security system, mentions shooting James as an option if he walks in on them.)
A sister church came and helped us clean up and beautify our yard. After that event, one of the men from a nearby sober-living house who is a regular attender, saw that he had missed all the fun. So, he spent the next five hours by himself cleaning up the mess we had missed! Every time I looked out my window, I expected to see him gone, but every time I looked, he was still there working with a smile on his face!
I could include many more stories here - a deacon who took half a day to rescue a needy woman's stranded car, a woman moved out of her home by a team of church members, a family's power kept on in a moment of financial crisis, a record setting youth event organized by Pastor Susan and hosted by a sister from another congregation with a big back yard pool... and on and on! But I need now to ask for your help in a couple specific ways.
Needs
In addition to providing prepared meals and clothing to our needy neighbors, we also provide pantry items. We run this pantry out of a garage that still functions as a garage the rest of the week. It is full of tools, ladders, and general mess. It's not insulated, not got proper walls, and needs to be transformed into a proper pantry space. We need that to happen soon. We want to become an official food bank distribution site (their food supplies would help us immensely) but we can't do that until we get the pantry space up to code. We have people to help us do the work, but we do not have it in our budget to effect this transformation. Can you help us afford this? We're pulling a plan together, but this will cost at least a few thousand dollars.
This is just our most pressing need - we depend upon outside donors to help us minister. We are a church both for and of this neighborhood. Out own financial resources are meager - by earthly standards. But God keeps taking those resources and multiplying them - using them to do far more than the typical forms of calculus would suggest. One of the biggest ways he does this is by inspiring brothers and sisters from elsewhere to give to this work.
Would you consider giving? Whether or not you can give financially, please pray for us! Ministry here is beautiful but it is also hard, and we rely every moment on God's strength, wisdom, mercy, patience, and grace to carry us through. If you live nearby or will be nearby at some point - please reach out to us and schedule a time to come visit ro volunteer!
Information about how to give is available below.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read!
May Christ bless you richly!